I wrote ‘A Cargo of Dragons’ in 1979/80 when I was in my early thirties, and sent it to one publisher, or agent, I forget which, who rejected it.

At Christmas time in 1980, I became engaged to Angela, and we married in August 1981, so, with preparing for the wedding, my day job and all the various other things going on in my life at that time, the manuscript was put away in a drawer and forgotten about.

If we now fast-forward to 2020 – Angela rediscovered it in the basement storage area of a block of flats in Jaén, Spain, when tidying up, preparing for the move to our apartment on the south coast of Cadiz province, Spain.

She brought it up to our flat and I read it. To my surprise, I found it quite a good adventure/thriller.

I’ve changed it a little; revised the grammar, spelling, typos etc, and done some editing to make it more readable, but haven’t changed the setting or the time period.

So, here it is, 40 years later, a ‘historical’ novel, which was actually written at the time it portrays.

I hope you enjoy it.

Mark Patrick Spain, 2020

Unsafe Passage is a modern-day adventure/thriller set in Georgia, USA.

Sample:-

      “If it does concern us; head-shots. They might be using body armour.”

    Nancy already had her pistol in her hand, its barrel extended by the length of the suppressor.

     I felt Gail disengage her arm from mine and her Glock appeared. I left mine under my arm; there’d be time enough later.

     “We’ll leave here tonight,” I decided. “Maybe I cut Hank off too soon.”

   “We’ll have to settle with this lot first,” said Nancy with a calmness I certainly didn’t share. “You realise we can’t leave any witnesses?”

An Affair of Court

Book 6 in the series 

'The Chronicles of the White Tower'

     Lady Marie Anne de Vilmanne, a seventeen year old Adapti of the Order of the White Tower, agrees to meet a close friend, not realising that this meeting will set off a chain of events that will bring the kingdom to the brink of civil war.

 

          First she meets three thieves.

          Then she meets a Lord and his family.

          After that she meets the chief of the Guild of Assassins.

          And a few days later, she meets a Goddess.

 

        Marie Anne’s life begins to get interesting subsequent to that meeting; although her life expectancy is sharply reduced.

 

        A deadly plot, aimed at the lives of nobles and involving the assassination of the young High King, is uncovered. Marie Anne is in a position where she can protect King John and is asked to do so by her Order of Chivalry. But no one foresaw that the King and the Lady would fall in love; least of all the couple principally involved.

 

      The arrangement that began as protection for the King quickly became real and romantic, if not passionate.

 

        But can the young King, and a Lady with no experience of court life, survive amid the political machinations of experienced nobles, courtiers and the Conclave of Bishops?